U.S. Firefly Atlas

The Xerces Society, in collaboration with the IUCN SSC Firefly Specialist Group and New Mexico BioPark Society, has launched the Firefly Atlas project:

The Firefly Atlas is a collaborative effort to better understand and conserve the diversity of fireflies in North America. Launched in 2022, the project aims to advance our collective understanding of firefly species’ distributions, phenology, and habitat associations, as well as to identify threats to their populations.

Although the Atlas tracks all species described from the US and Canada, we are currently prioritizing efforts for a subset of 13 threatened and data deficient species found in three focal regions of the US: the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Southwest. These priority regions were chosen based upon having a high number of threatened species and/or a high number of data deficient species. - What is the Firefly Atlas?

Torrey Lecture, Wednesday March 30

2022-04-07: The recording is online on the Torrey Botanical Society YouTube channel.

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I am proud to announce that I will be co-presenting, with Zihao Wang, a Lecture of the Torrey Botanical Society on Wednesday March 30 at 6pm. The title of the talk is "City Nature Challenge (CNC) 2022: For Plant-lovers and Botanists Alike."

Note that the information we present will be applicable to iNaturalist users and City Nature Challenge observers and identifiers anywhere in the world! So, whereever you are, please join us if you can.

Abstract

Unlike most other citizen science platforms, iNaturalist allows anyone to record their observations of any living thing anywhere in the world. As it approaches 100 million Observations worldwide, it has become increasingly important to botany and other biological sciences. City Nature Challenge, based on iNaturalist, engages community members in cities and urbanized areas around the world to make observations, and provides opportunities for taxonomic experts to identify them, all over the world. Last year over 400 cities participated, with over 50,000 people documenting over 45,000 species with over 1.2 million observations, the largest bioblitz in the world. In this Torrey Talk, two iNaturalist experts will show how you can participate in iNaturalist and this year’s upcoming City Nature Challenge.

Registration

Date: 2022-03-30
Time: 6pm EDT (GMT-04:00)
Duration: 1 hour
Registration: Zoom

The talk will be recorded and made available on the Torrey YouTube channel sometime after the event. Please subscribe to our channel and enable notifications so you get updated when we publish new recordings!

Related Content

Links

Torrey Botanical Society

Native Plant Profile: Amelanchier

I could probably talk about Amelanchier until my voice gave out (at least an hour!). It's such a great multi-season plant in the garden, and brings so much value to wildlife, as well. It's also a great example of how native plants convey a "sense of place" that is not imparted by conventional, non-native plants in the garden.

Although the Genus is distributed across the Northern hemisphere, the greatest diversity is found in North America. As you can see from the BONAP distribution map, Amelanchier diversity is the greatest in the Northeast. New York State hosts 14 species, varieties, natural hybrids, and subspecies. And New York City is home to 6 of those.

Amelanchier in my garden

Amelanchier was one of the key plants I included in my backyard native plant garden design in 2009. To fit my design, I needed a tree form with a single trunk and broad canopy.

NYC Regional Native Plant Sales, Spring-Summer 2021

2021-06-09: Added Tufts Pollinator Initiative Native Plant Sale

2021-03-27: Initial listing. I will continue to update this throughout the season as I learn of more events.

This season's native plant sales in and around New York City. Events are listed by date. For year-round sources of native plants, see Sources for Native Plants.

Drumbeat

2020-04-21: The McSweeney's piece was picked up by YES! Magazine. Search for "Flatbush". or "AIDS".
2020-03-30: I adapted some of this blog post, and several of my tweets on this subject, for a short post on McSweeney's:
Do Not Deny What You Feel
2020-03-29: Updated

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As a child, even as I watched rockets launch from my bedroom window, the news kept us apprised of the ever-rising (American) casualties from the Vietnam War. As an adolesecent, I was fascinated and appalled by old issues of LIFE magazine published during World War II. Every article, every ad, devoted to the war. That terrified me the most: that there was no escape from it.

That's where we are: at war.

Grief and Gardening: A Dissetling Spring

"The Return of Persephone", Frederic Leighton, 1896 (four years before his death)

The March Equinox - Spring or Vernal, in the Northern Hemisphere - occurs at 11:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time this evening. It's the earliest it's occurred in over a century. It seems fitting, given the warm, nearly snowless winter, and the quickened pace of everything else.

Off-Topic: The Conversation

I moved to NYC the first weekend of 1979. By Spring, I had moved to the East Village, an epicenter of what was first called "gay cancer," then "Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease," or GRID. Four years later, by 1983 - the year of the symposium that led to this anthology - it was being called AIDS.

Off-topic: 20 Years

Today is the 20th anniversary of my sobriety. Sobriety, abstinence, and recovery are often conflated. They're not the same things.



I got sober because drinking was interfering with my recovery. I say "I got sober," not just "I stopped drinking." Abstinence was as necessary for my sobriety as sobriety was for my recovery, but I don't equate sobriety with abstinence. Today, I have the occasional glass of beer or wine with dinner. I am still sober.

Rest for Winter's Dead

2019-04-07: Additions and link corrections

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Amelanchier Flower Buds


With a score or so species, subspecies, and natural hybrids native to northeastern North America, the genus Amelanchier goes by several common names, many of which represent the plants' phenology:

Shadblow

It blooms - blows - when the shad are running.

Juneberry

The edible, dark-purple fruit ripen in June.

Serviceberry

It blooms now, when the ground has thawed enough to dig new graves, and services can be held for those who died during the Winter.

Alosa sapidissima, American Shad, print by Shermon Foote Denton, First Annual Report of the Commissioners of Fisheries, Game, and Forests of the State of New York (1896)

County-level map of Amelanchier distribution, Biota of North America Program (BONAP)

There are examples of Amelanchier blooming all around us, if you know what to look for. Unfortunately, you're more likely to encounter Pyrus calleryana, Callery Pear, alien and invasive, and widely planted as street trees. This year, they started blooming before the Serviceberries.

Serviceberries, to my eye, are more elegant, with widely-spaced branches, and feathery flowers held in elongated clusters. My specimen, Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance', finally bloomed two days ago. It's opening unevenly, still a day or two away from full bloom. Perhaps it's as suspicious of our early Spring as I am, hoarding its treasures lest they all be squandered at once to a hard frost.

Slideshow

Related Content

Native Plant Profile: Amelanchier x grandiflora

Links

USDA PLANTS Database: AMELA
Wikipedia: Amelanchier
BONAP: Amelanchier

Emergence

Our unseasonably warm weather has turned the phenology dial up to 11 in my urban backyard native plant / wildlife habitat garden.

Last Wednesday, the furry buds of Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance' were extending.


Yesterday, four days later, the shoots have turned upright, and individual flower buds are visible. Bloom is imminent.


Helenium autumnale, Sneezeweed, NYC-local Ecotype. This plant already needs dividing, something I wasn't expecting to do for another month.


Podophyllum peltatum, Mayapple


Trillium (cuneatum?)


Mertensia virginica, Virgina Bluebells, is already tall and full of sky-blue flower buds.


Flower Buds, Vaccinium corymbosum, Highbush Blueberry, NYC-local ecotype. This also seems extremely early. Maybe I'll get blueberries in May this year.


Allium tricoccum, Ramps

Related Content

My Garden

Persephone Returns

Happy Equinox.

The Return of Persephone (1891), by Frederic Leighton (1830–1896). Leighton depicts Hermes helping Persephone to return to her mother Demeter after Zeus forced Hades to return Persephone.

Related Posts

Finally, Spring!, 2010
Happy Spring , 2009
Persephone Rises, 2008
Happy Vernal Equinox, 2007

Links

Wikipedia: Equinox

Brooklyn Dirt #2, 3/16, Sycamore Bar and Flower Shop

The second night of the speaker event series Brooklyn Dirt: Monthly Talks on Urban Garden and Farming is this Wednesday, March 16. The topic is Garden Design.

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Prospect Farm and Sustainable Flatbush are proud to present Brooklyn Dirt: Monthly Talks on Urban Farming and Gardening.

Sycamore Bar and Flowershop
1118 Cortelyou Road
Brooklyn, NY, 11218

21 and over only

Directions: Q train to Cortelyou Road

Talk Two: Garden Design
With Speakers Tom Angotti with Jesse Alter (Hunter ) and Chris Kreussling (AKA Flatbush Gardener)
Talk One: Dirt and Soil
Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 7-9:30pm
With Speakers Jay Smith and Chris Kreussling (AKA Flatbush Gardener)

$5 suggested donation. Proceeds benefit Prospect Farm and the Urban Gardens and Farms Initiative of Sustainable Flatbush.

Windsor Farm breaks ground

A new Brooklyn community farm/garden, christened "Windsor Farm," broke ground Sunday, April 28 in Windsor Terrace. I went to lend my support, help out for a bit, and check out the scene.

It's a challenging site, even for an urban garden. The aerial photography of Google Maps revealed that the site is completely covered by trees. It didn't show that the property spans a steep slope.




Whatever this slope is, believe me, when you're on the side of it using edge tools to cut through the brambles, it feels a lot steeper!

Even more challenging are the weeds, which include:

• Ailanthus altissima, tree-of-heaven
• Fallopia japonica, Japanese Knotweed
• Gleditsia triacanthos, Honeylocust
• Hibiscus syriacus, Rose-of-Sharon
• Lonicera japonica, Japanese Honeysuckle

... and a few others I'm forgetting at the moment. I don't know what annual species the seasons will reveal.

Fallopia japonica, Japanese Knotweed, at Windsor Farm. These stalks, 3-6" high now, will grow to 8-9' tall by the end of the summer, and produce thousands of seeds.

Campus Road Garden's Last Stand?

The Campus Road Garden is holding a press conference tomorrow, March 25, at 12 noon. Yesterday they discovered the site had been flagged for demolition. They have invited Brooklyn College Administration to attend tomorrow's conference.

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Press Release

Press conference at Campus Road Community Garden, Brooklyn College
Primary Contact: Madeline Nelson, Community Gardener (718)-421-1814 or (917)-538-7505
Secondary Contact: Tara Mulqueen, Brooklyn College Student, (646)-546-4564

March 25, 12:00 pm
Garden supporters will announce next steps in campaign to save the garden, and invite Brooklyn College’s administration to explain their intentions and timing

Flatbush, Brooklyn, March 24, 2010

The morning after many students, faculty and community members had taken part in a spring celebration and planting party at the Campus Road Community Garden, they discovered that Brooklyn College had planted stakes and twine demarcating its planned demolition of 3/4 of the existing garden, to be replaced by parking for 20 cars. The stakes make clear that under the college’s current plan, most of the trees and all of the common area of the 14-year-old garden would be destroyed.

Finally, Spring!

View from South Cove, Battery Park City


The March equinox (vernal in the northern hemisphere, autumnal in the southern hemisphere) occurred this morning at 1:32 PM Eastern Time (UTC-04:00, since it's now Eastern Daylight Time). Yesterday, I walked along the Esplanade of Battery Park City on the Hudson River. With a week of warm weather, and highs 20F degrees above normal for this time of year, the pace of bloom has been accelerated and compressed. I found:

• Crocus tommasinianus and other Crocus 
• Eranthis hyemalis, Winter Aconite
• Galanthus nivalis, Snowdrops 
• Helleborus orientalis, Lenten Rose
• Iris reticulata
• even an early Narcissus, Daffodil

While the Daffodil was surprising, the others are all early bloomers. I'm just not used to seeing them all blooming at the same time.

In Observance of Irish Pride (St. Patrick's) Day

Updated 2011-03-17: Added links.

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Yesterday, with the first good weather of the year, I visited the Irish Hunger Memorial in downtown Manhattan, two blocks from Ground Zero. I've been there before. It definitely had a wintery, wind-swept feel to it this visit. This year, I want to visit it a couple times during the seasons.

Some of the surrounding buildings are new, even in the past few years, since my first visit. The juxtaposition of modern, even stark, architecture with rustic elements is striking.

Here are my photos from that visit.

Slideshow

Spring Cleaning on Cortelyou Road

The daffodils are pushing up along Cortelyou Road and they would be so much prettier if they don't bloom in the midst of garbage! Join Sustainable Flatbush and your neighbors from the Beverley Square West Association to help clean up the tree beds.

When: Sunday, March 21st
Where: Meet up at 10am in front of the Library, near the Greenmarket tent, at the corner of Argyle and Cortelyou Roads.
If you miss the meet-up, look for us along Cortelyou Road between Coney Island Avenue and East 16th Street.

Bring gloves and rakes if you have them; we will also have some to share. Children are welcome to join us!

Making Brooklyn Bloom at BBG, this Saturday, March 13

Making Brooklyn Bloom in March 2008


I'm hoping to attend the 29th annual Making Brooklyn Bloom at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden this Saturday. The theme of healthy soils, communities and cities is of interest to me.

via press release

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The urban gardening community will kick off the spring gardening season at Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) with the 29th annual Making Brooklyn Bloom, a daylong conference on how to green up the borough, presented by GreenBridge, the community environmental horticulture program at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

This year’s Making Brooklyn Bloom, “Soil in the City: Growing Healthy Neighborhoods from the Ground Up,” focuses on revitalizing our soil, the foundation of life in the garden. The free event features a keynote address by Dr. Nina Bassuk, director of the Urban Horticulture Institute at Cornell University, developer of Cornell Structural Soil, and author of Trees in the Urban Landscape. Exhibits and workshops on rooftop farming, community composting, and soil testing will be offered—all presented by members of BBG’s horticulture staff or experts from other greening organizations in New York City.

And they're off! (That is, the cherry trees at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden)

The cherries are blooming at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG), just in time for the start of Hanami this weekend. In addition to those already blooming on Washington Avenue and the parking lot, there are four blooming within the main collection covered by the BBG CherryWatch Blossom Status Map:

• Prunus sargentii 'Fudansakura': one in the Japanese Garden, one near the north end of the Cherry Walk
• Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis', near 'Fudansakura' at the north end of the Cherry Walk
  
• Prunus 'Okame', near the south end of the Cherry Walk
  

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Related Content

My Flickr photo set from this afternoon's visit

More Hanami at BBG, 2008-04-25
Hanami at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 2008-04-04
Introducing the BBG Hanami Flickr Group, 2009-04-03
Events and Resources: Hanami and more at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 2007-04-03

Links

Cherries, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Hanami: Cherry Blossom Viewing at Brooklyn Botanic Garden , Flickr photo pool

Bats, Bat Houses, and White-Nose Syndrome 2009

Mosquito control is a perennial topic on the Flatbush Family Network, one of the numerous email discussion groups which cover the different neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Bat houses invariably come up as a way of attracting a natural predator to keep mosquito populations in check. Here I'm reprising and updating my posts on these and related topics from last year.

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS)

Last Spring I wrote about White-Nose Syndrome (WNS). A breakthrough that occurred just in the past few months is that the "White-Nose" has been identified as a group of previously unknown species of Geomyces fungus. It's still unknown whether it's a symptom - such as an opportunistic infection - or a cause or contributor.

Bats exhibiting white-nose syndrome in Hailes Cave, Albany County, NY, one of the first caves in which WNS was observed. Photo: Nancy Heaslip, NYS DEC.


Bob Hoke of the District of Columbia Grotto (DCG) of the National Speleological Society (NSS) maintains an excellent chronology of WNS news and understanding. WNS has already killed hundreds of thousands of bats across the northeast over the past four winters. Mortality has been as high as 90% in some caves. It's estimated that 75% of northeastern bats have died in just four years. Unfortunately, it continues to spread; for the first time, it's also been found or suspected in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylania, Virginia and West Virginia.

Map of occurrence of White Nose Syndrome by county as of March 4, 2009. WNS was later confirmed in Virginia. Credit: courtesy of Cal Butchkoski, Pennsylvania Game Commission


Because of the high mortality, rapid spread, and still-unknown causes of the disease, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (US FWS) has issued a cave advisory to suspend all caving activities in affected states, and take precautions in states where WNS has not yet been detected:

The evidence collected to date indicates that human activity in caves and mines may be assisting the spread of WNS. Therefore, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is recommending actions to reduce the risks of further spread of WNS:

1. A voluntary moratorium on caving in states with confirmed WNS and all adjoining states;
2. Nationally, in states not WNS-affected or adjoining states, use clothing and gear that has never been in caves in WNS-affected or adjoining states;
3. State and federal conservation agencies should evaluate scientific activities for their potential to spread WNS; and
4. Nationally, researchers should use clothing and gear that has never been in caves in a WNS-affected or adjoining state.

This also applies to mines used by cavers.

These recommendations will remain in effect until the mechanisms behind transmission of WNS are understood, and/or the means to mitigate the risk of human-assisted transport are developed.

There was a big thing that came out in the environmental reports last year that chemical mosquito killers are quite bad for the environment and killed more than just mosquitoes. They might even be part of the reason why there is a bacteria/virus killing off northeastern bats. Although, scientists haven't found anything conclusive it seems.
- via Flatbush Family Network

WNS research is ongoing, but it's still not known what the cause is. A plausible explanation is immunodeficiency caused by environmental contamination, such as insecticides sprayed for West Nile Virus, but again, that's just one of several hypotheses being explored by researchers. A pathogen such as a virus, bacteria or fungus is likely due to the patterns by which it's spreading.

Bat Houses

Bat houses seem like a great idea. At night, bats eat about 1,000 pesky insects an hour. I don't know how one attracts bats to your bat house but I've seen them in the evening in Prospect Park, amazing little creatures that they are.
- via Flatbush Family Network

I wrote about bat houses last year. Bats have specific requirements for roosting sites. Most of the houses I've seen commercially available are too small or lacking in other requirements. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) article, "Why I Built a Bat House," contains detailed instructions for building a house that meets current knowledge about bats roosting needs.

The bat house I purchased last year from Bat Conservation International before I installed it on the side of the second floor porch - my "tree fort" - at the back of my house.


Note that this is the time of year when bats are looking for their "summer homes." I put mine up mid-April last year, which was a little late. I'm hoping they find it and set up house this year!

General information about bats

Is there ANY danger to my 4 year old son? Do bats poop/pee/spit anything bad for him? Do they really only come out at night?
- via Flatbush Family Network

Bats really do only come out at night. You're most likely to see them at dusk, when they leave their roosts, and dawn, when they return. At the end of last summer, I saw a few on my block flying amidst the gaps between the canopies of the street trees. They seemed to be feasting on the insects attracted to the street lights.

Many people are concerned about rabies. While sensible caution is warranted, the risk is extremely low. In New York City, you're more likely to contract West Nile Virus (WNV), which bats help combat by eating mosquitoes which carry the virus. If you see any normally nocturnal animal - such as a bat, raccoon or opossum - out in the open during the day, keep children and pets away from it and notify animal control by calling 311.

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Related Content

Rabies in NYC: Facts and Figures, 2008-07-08
Bat Houses, 2008-04-13
Northeastern Bats in Peril, 2008-03-18
Other posts about bats

Links

Bats

Bats of New York, Eileen Stegemann and Al Hicks, Conservationist, February 2008, NYSDEC
Bat Conservation International (BCI)

Bat Houses

Why I Built a Bat House, Carla Brown, National Wildlife Federation (NWF) (H/T Sara S. via Flatbush Family Network)
Bats Wanted, Al Hicks and Eileen Stegemann, Conservationist, February 2008, NYSDEC
The importance of bat houses, Organization for Bat Conservation
The Bat House Forum

White-Nose Syndrome

An excellent chronology of WNS is maintained by Bob Hoke of the District of Columbia Grotto (DCG) of the National Speleological Society (NSS).

White-Nose Syndrome Confirmed in VA Bats, WHSV, Richmond, VA, 2009-04-02
Cave activity discouraged to help protect bats from deadly white-nose syndrome, Press Release, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 2009-03-26
Fungus Kills About 90 Percent Of Connecticut's Bats, Rinker Buck, Hartford Courant, 2009-03-18 (H/T NewYorkology via Twitter)
Newly Identified Fungus Implicated in White-Nose Syndrome in Bats, Press Release, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 2008-10-31
Bats dying off across western Maine, Maine Sun Journal, 2008-07-19 (H/T Center for Biological Diversity)
Dying Bats in the Northeast Remain a Mystery, USGS Newsroom, 2008-05-09
First It Was Bees, Now It's Bats That Are Dying, Natural News, 2008-04-11
Bats in the Region Are Dying From a Mysterious Ailment, Litchfield County Times, 2008-04-03
Bats Perish, and No One Knows Why, New York Times Science Section, 2008-03-25
Bat Die-Off Prompts Investigation, Environment DEC, March 2008, NYSDEC

White-nose Syndrome Threatens New York's Bats, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC)
White-Nose Syndrome, Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC)
White-Nose Syndrome in bats: Something is killing our bats, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Northeast Region

Mystery Disease Kills U.S. Bats, Bat Conservation International
Bat Crisis: The White-Nose Syndrome, Center for Biological Diversity
White Nose Syndrome Page, Liaison on White Nose Syndrome, National Speleological Society (NSS)
Something is killing our bats: The white-nose syndrome mystery, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Wikipedia: White-nose syndrome